GLBL 307 - Advanced Global Studies

Institution:

Westminster College (Salt Lake City)

Subject:

Description:

The course on Advanced Interdisciplinary Global Studies (Advanced IGS) endows students with the tools and opportunities to develop and propose concrete solutions and alternatives to complex contemporary global problems. This course will unfold as follows. First students will be presented with a delimited set of highly complex global problems known to scholars in trans-disciplinary and global studies as seemingly "intractable problems". These problems come from the different spheres of ecology, economy, politics, health, and culture, and the interaction among them. Examples of such seemingly "intractable problems" may include the following: the global environmental crisis as evident, for instance, in climate change or the mass extinction of species due to the expansion of human civilization; the global crisis resulting from energy and resource depletion due to overexploitation and overconsumption; the global crisis in the food and water systems due to unsustainable land and water use that leads to soil erosion and water pollution, maldistribution of food and water, and excessive waste; the crisis in the global economic system due to growing concentration of wealth, deepening inequality, continuing poverty, financial volatility, and demographic displacement; the global challenges in health due to the correlation between material deprivation, environmental degradation and proliferating illnesses; or the global crisis of (in)security due to responses to injustice, oppression, exploitation, and violence, or to the rising manifestations of militarism, war, terrorism, conflict and the like, especially as reinforced (or propelled) by misunderstandings and distrust among social groups along categories such as nationality, culture, religion, civilization, race, gender, class and other types of identity. Students will then explore how these problems can actually interact and reinforce each other across different spheres in "perverse" ways that make challenges even more complex and seemingly intractable. Afterwards, students will be challenged to develop a deep critical understanding of the structural and agential drivers behind these problems and to collaboratively find creative ways to overcome such complex challenges, using interdisciplinary, intercultural, and intersectional approaches with global perspectives. The professor will closely mentor throughout the process to guide students in the effort to analyze and deconstruct these seemingly intractable problems and to explore, develop, or creatively prefigure globally inclusive, healthy, socially just and environmentally sustainable alternatives and solutions for one or more of these intersecting issues. In order for students to conduct proper research geared towards the development of solid proposals for alternatives and solutions to global problems, during this seminar students will be exposed to some of the cutting edge in-depth scholarly research and policy work on contemporary global problems, and will be trained in some of the most useful interdisciplinary approaches, theories and methods to address these global problems. Students will also work closely with the professor during the second half of the course to tailor a personalized research agenda containing research materials in accordance with the unique skills and interests of each student. Finally, students will develop as a project a proposal based on substantial scholarly research and geared towards understanding, addressing, and overcoming a specific global problem, or small set of global problems, through concrete solutions or alternatives. The project may result in a research paper or a policy proposal, but may also result in a documentary film, a webpage or another artifact of scholarly quality.

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.westminstercollege.edu

Phone Number:

(801) 484-7651

Regional Accreditation:

Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities

Calendar System:

Four-one-four plan

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